The prior art bracket, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,932 which is hereafter referred to as Reference A, has a shape consisting of the combination of a hole and a triangular pocket, the walls of the hole completely surrounding the side strut and thus holding the bracket against the strut. The advantages of such a bracket cited by Ref. A are: low cost, strength, moisture resistance, and long life. In addition to these advantages, the bracket has several other advantages, namely:
1. Safety. Some kites use metal hooks attached to the ends of the cross strut as the means of securing the cross strut to the kite, the hooks engaging grommets secured to the kite body. A monolithic bracket with a triangular pocket is considerably safer.
2. Easy cross strut length adjustment. When the bracket is used on a home-made kite, the absence of metal hooks on the cross strut allows the kite builder to easily shorten the strut, if needed, to provide additional flying stability for the kite.
3. Long kite life. Some other methods of cross strut attachment require the kite to be severely stretched whenever the cross strut is inserted or removed. This continual stressing of the fabric of the kite body can considerably shorten the useful life of the kite.
4. Easy cross strut symmetry adjustment. A kite with improved flying qualities, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,200 which is hereafter referred to as Reference B, has the cross strut tied to the center strut. On such a kite the cross strut must be symmetrical so as to produce equal tension on both sides of the kite, and the bracket makes it easy to check the symmetry by simply grasping the brackets and pulling them away from each other, thus stretching the kite. With the kite held stretched and the cross strut centered, both ends of the strut will extend an equal amount into each bracket. The cross strut can easily be shifted until it is centered.